jbwan: WordPress’ed for time…

An article in today’s Times about the Dublin Port Tunnel left me in stitches. Seemingly Bertie has adopted the stance that any trucks that are too big to use the Dublin Port Tunnel should be turned away because they are not wanted. Could this be the ultimate in defence of the undefendable? He’s starting to sound more and more like Mr. McDowell every day.

Meanwhile in Waterford today, the new outer ring road (section 1) is being opened providing faster access to the regional hospital from the Cork Road (N25). Yet another amazing benefit of our government, providing a relief road from a city entry route to a mostly residential area when the majority of traffic will have no reason to travel from the N25 to the hospital nor will any of the residential “school run” traffic be travelling to an area of the county that has no schools. Conclusion: A massively, misspent budget on a road that so far goes no way to relieving the traffic problems in the area around the regional hospital! I can only imagine that big development plans are lying around somewhere for this new route and that somebody might stand to profit massively from the development. Only time will tell… source: Irish Times

Due to a seemingly unavoidable level of trackback spam from ignorant, mutinous pirates of the cyber-seas I have disabled all trackbacks on my weblog as of today. Filtering the spam and removing the entires has become too much of a burden to warrant a continuance in my interest of cyber-social referencing. Despite using multiple plug-ins to try and avoid this burden, all relief efforts have come to an end. Too bad but all good things must conclude at some stage…

Finally Frank McBrearty jnr the man falsely accused and framed by the Gardaí for a murder that never happened has been awarded Eur1.5M by the state (Morris tribunal) after 9 years of pain and suffering on his behalf. Best wishes to Frank and I hope that his life can somehow return to normality. As for the minister for injustice and the department of injustice, I sincerely hope that this outcome will change the attitudes of a minister who, back in June 2005, said that he would only just consider sacking the Gardaí at the centre of this case (ref: Irish Times) and a department that was still unsure if costs would be awarded to Mr. McBrearty despite his complete innocence. It’s time for a regime change… source: Irish Times

Everyone knows at this stage that I am no fan of insurance companies – no secret there. It is sad however to only now see a report coming out about profits in the insurance industry accusing it of making excessive profits despite a drop in business. Car insurance is especially profitable for the industry and they have been hiding behind ancient statistics for too long to make their judgments on premiums. It’s time that the government stepped in on this issue once and for all. The third party insurance system needs to be regulated. The PIAB is already making progress toward solving ridiculous claims and legal fees but a regulation of third party insurance is what this country needs more than anything. Third party insurance is covered in registration fees in countries like Australia so there is a working model to learn from. There is no need for people to pay ridiculous sums of money to private enterprises as a result of a government enforced insurance policy. Stop the madness now!!! source: Irish Times

In recent times we have all heard about the TV show “Rip-off Republic” and the controversy that it has been causing in Ireland with respect to how people view the financial management of the country by the government. We also know that the government has been deeply upset by the program (strange to comprehend that it would have contained such upsetting material considering that it was aired on RTE?). Anyway I guess it is now unsurprising to see an article in the media about an ex-client of the show’s presenter Eddie Hobbs, whom allegedly was an off-shore tax evader. Far be it from me to suggest that this is the start of a slur campaign against the one man in Ireland who was willing to publicly point out problems in the country. source: Irish Times